Many of the families of the victims of flight 370 are behaving as many Chinese mainland people do. They act out of ignorance rather than reason. Not only do they act out of ignorance but do so with the utmost insolence. Even the China Daily put out a opinion piece saying how they should behave with dignity and rationality.

I have heard and seen them accuse Malaysia of conspiring and detaining the people on the plane. I have heard them accuse them of lying. What evidence do they have of this? Nothing. Ironic since they also accuse Malaysia of making statements without evidence. Granted they have lost loved ones but does that give them an excuse to make up these baseless slanderous accusations? Rumor rules the lives of many Chinese and the slightest gossip can put them into a tizzy often with very harmful effects. Sadly much of the Chinese public believe the rumors and I have heard people say that they think the US and Malaysian governments are conspiring against them and know where the plane is. They think the passengers are being kept alive somewhere and demand they be released. This is the kind of blind that has brought China so much misery in the last 60 years. Malaysia hasn’t done anything that is morally wrong. Perhaps they could have done some thing more efficiently and been more careful but I have not seen them behave in anything other than what the situation warranted. I think they have done about as well as it was possible under the circumstances. If only the family members behaved as decently.

As we know, Crimea was annexed by Russia in a move that is illegal under international law. Russian claims that it is legitimate because the people of Crimea voted in a referendum that they want to be annexed. Many American deny that the collective will of the Crimeans are relevant to the legality of Russia’s annexation. However, notice that many of those who advocate for Tibet to be independent do so because they rely on an ad populum argument, it’s the will of the people of Tibet to be independent. This assumption is unsubstantiated and from the available evidence false (see here and here). But even for the sake of argument if most Tibetans wanted independence, Tibet’s legal situation much like Crimea’s legal situation is not a matter of popular will but of national sovereignty. Ukraine has a right to it much as China has a right to sovereignty over Tibet as recognized by international law and the international community.

In the last few months since the Edward Snowden leaks, the western and especially US media has all but been silent on allegations of Chinese cyber espionage and hacking, a stark contrast with the months preceding the revelations. These leaks expose for the masses the complicity of the US media in covering up 99.9% of internet privacy violations which weren’t committed by an evil, foreign perilous totalitarian empire but by a domestic, evil, and totalitarian empire.

The American media in its focus on alleged Chinese cyber warfare was effectively acting as a propaganda smoke screen for the US’s actual warfare against the world and its own citizens. They were behaving as any good ministry of propaganda would for a totalitarian regime; covering their ass while demonizing some foreign other. But now it looks like the media is starting to shift priorities more in line with reality perhaps because it no longer could get away its past behavior. The public is now, thanks to Snowden, more informed about the reality of the privacy violations and simply look on all attention directed at foreign governments as propaganda. The media is quick to note this change in public awareness and must shift attention to reflect their concerns.

The virulently racist Frank Wolf has succeeded in pressuring NASA not to allow Chinese scientists to attend a NASA convention due to “national security” concerns. This is the same scumhole once at the heart of the China-gate scandals of the late 90s that saw a return of McCarthyism and yellowperil fanaticism in the media and US gov.

I’m glad to see, however, that scientists are boycotting the ridiculous scaremongering.

During the 19th century, the imperialist British had sold so much opium in China that millions became hooked and the drug dealers profited immensely from the coercive and illegal (under then Chinese laws) trade. Wars between China and the foreign imperialists were started when the Chinese government tried to stop the trade. China was devastated by these wars and the epidemic of opium addiction. They are known and remembered in many Chinese people today as the century of humiliation and foreign exploitation.

This is a follow up to my previous post. I have been thinking about this for some time now and want to ask the why question. I have heard and read several explanations. I think they may have some truth to them but I also want to talk about an additional possible explanation.